Referring to FIG. 1, an opening joint 201 of a package 200 may be sealed with a label LABEL0. The label may comprise one or more visual markings MRK1. The marking MRK1 may be e.g. a hologram, which represents a trade mark associated with a product.
The label may be attached to the package such that package cannot be opened without damaging the package or without damaging the label. The presence of an intact sealing label on the package may be interpreted to indicate that the package has not been tampered. The presence of an intact sealing label on the package may be interpreted to indicate e.g. that the original contents of the package has not been replaced with a falsified product.
However, the label can sometimes be detached from the package such that the label remains intact or such that the package remains intact. A detached intact label may be re-used for unauthorized purposes. For example, a potential counterfeiter could obtain an intact label by separating it from a first package (by damaging the first package), and the potential counterfeiter could also obtain an intact second package by removing a second label from the second package (by damaging the second label). The potential counterfeiter could subsequently replace the contents of the intact second package, and re-seal the second package with the intact label without leaving visual indications that the second package has been tampered. In other words, a detached label could be attached to a re-used package such that the resulting combination does not have visually detectable damage.
It is known to use a sealing label, which comprises one or more incisions or perforations. The incisions or perforations may weaken the structure of the label such that separating the label from a surface is likely to cause tearing of the label. However, before the labels are attached to the item to be labelled, the adhesive may leak through the incisions or perforations so that the leaking adhesive causes problems in the label rolls or during handling or dispensing of the individual labels. After the labels have been dispensed, i.e. attached to the items to be labeled, the incisions or perforations may form protrusions, which may inadvertently stick to foreign objects or collide with the foreign objects. Consequently, handling of such labels or items labelled with such labels may cause problems.